Courts

The Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library should be able to pursue a cross-claim against an engineering company for breach
of professional standard of care, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today.

On a historic day for the Supreme Court of the United States, one justice stepped down after more than three decades as his
successor began her confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

To address Indiana’s growing prison population and increasing related costs, the state is partnering with The Pew Center
on the States and the Council of State Governments Justice Center for the first comprehensive review of the state’s
criminal code and sentencing policies since 1976.

A law enforcement officer’s use of force in excess of reasonable force authorized by statute isn't shielded from
liability under the "enforcement of a law" immunity under Indiana Code Section 34-13-3-3(8), the Indiana Supreme
Court held today.

Within a year, the federal court system that covers the southern half of Indiana could have two new full-time magistrates,
one being a newly created position that would be the first creation of its kind in almost three decades.

Defense attorneys for the former state trooper facing a third triple-murder trial want the Indiana Supreme Court to name a
special judge because of what they say are delays from the current presiding judge.

Although state law allows police to request identification from passengers inside a car that they’ve stopped, two Indianapolis
officers shouldn’t have done arrested a man for refusing to identify himself when there was no reasonable suspicion
he’d done anything wrong.

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled on a case about a northern Indiana steel processing plant, overturning the
7th Circuit Court of Appeals and effectively limiting how a federal labor-relations board is able to conduct business regarding
employee and union rights.

Marion Superior Judge Tanya Walton Pratt has just received confirmation from the U.S. Senate, meaning she'll become state's
first African-American federal judge and one of four female jurists on Indiana's federal bench.

State trial judges can consider sentencing scores to help tailor penalties to individual defendants, as long as those results
aren’t used as final aggravating or mitigating factors in deciding a penalty length, the Indiana Supreme Court says

While applauding a prison inmate for pursuing higher education while behind bars, the Indiana Court of Appeals has determined
that man shouldn’t receive additional educational credit time for a program the state system doesn’t consider
to fit into its definition of “literacy and life skills” programs.

Two Indiana Supreme Court justices objected to affirming a man’s drug sentence for possession within 1,000 feet of a
“youth program center” because the church that ran the programs wasn’t easily identifiable as regularly
running programs for kids.

At least two attorneys are questioning how some legal publications have included articles, columns, or other types of coverage
on pending cases, and they worry that these articles may influence the judges on the cases.